Always chasing rainbows
by Skinnergirl
Summary: AU. Naomi is on her way to get married when she meets a stranger on the plane, Emily, who causes her to question everything she has believed in.
1. Chapter 1

Slipping onto the cold leather plane seat I took a deep breath and slipped an anti-anxiety pill into my mouth, my fourth since this morning. Surely overdosing on herbal tablets is impossible? Right? I felt my heart rate rising again...brilliant I am such a nervous person that even anti anxiety pills make me nervous

'S'cuse me, I am in the window seat' I was pulled from my internal panic by a husky voice

'Oh, sorry' I looked up into the eyes of the woman whose voice had pulled me from my internal panic, what I wasn't prepared for was how those eyes would affect me.

As I stared into the intense brown eyes of the stranger I would be sat next to for the next 3 hours I began to feel a calm spread over my body that had nothing to do with the four anti anxiety pills I had taken previously.

Suddenly I became aware that the eyes had widened and the owner was now leaning forward towards me 'However much I would love to continue this staring contest I think the 20 passengers behind me would like to get to their seats before we are airborne' looking from her eyes and taking in her face I noted the smirk on her mouth before jumping into action

'Sorry' I stumbled on my way out of my seat 'nervous flier' I offered in way of explanation

Once she was back in her seat I lowered myself back down into mine 'Nervous flier huh?' she raised an eyebrow at me 'well have no fear, I was an air hostess not so long ago so you are in safe hands' she leant across and fastened my seat belt across my rapidly heating lower body

I took a deep breath and leant back fully into my seat 'Thanks, I know all the statistics about plane crashes but still doesn't stop me from panicking' looking to my left I continued talking, seemingly finding myself unable to stop 'did you for instance know that you are more likely to be attacked by a hippo than be in a plane crash? And being that I live in Bristol and there are no hippos there' I stopped on hearing her mutter something

'What was that?' I bit my lower lip in embarassment at rambling on to someone who I just met

' I said, cute' she sent the smirk from earlier my way again 'Bristol hey? My sister lives there' she continued the conversation on but all I could here was her calling me 'cute' echoing in my head

* * *

Once the pilot had turned off the seatbelt signs I switched on my notebook, I waited for the seat belt signs to turn off as the pilot asked but noted that the passenger to my left who I now knew to be called Emily had listened to her ipod since take off. Her decision to do so had sent my heart sky rocketing but here we are, still in the sky so I guess panic over.

_Everytime I see you my heart reminds me of how you make me feel_

I paused in my writing when I felt Emily shift beside me, I snapped the notebook shut and faced firmly forward

'Sorry, I have a bad habit of reading over people's shoulders' Emily shrugged her shoulders and looked me in the eye

'What? Oh you were reading it?' for some reason the need to deny noticing her reading came over me 'I just stopped to take a break'

'After one minute of writing?' the smirk and eyebrow raise were back in force 'either you get tired very easily or you are embarassed to admit you noticed me reading it' she was teasing me, and for some reason this made me smile instead of making me become the sarcastic cow I usually would have

I shrugged 'OK fine, I noticed you stray on to my side and read my writing' I smirked back at her 'happy now?'

'Well Naomi that all depends on whether you are going to tell me what you are writing for?' she carried on whilst treating me to a full smile 'as well as the bad habit of reading over people's shoulders I am also in the habit of being extremely nosey'

Her forwardness took me back, I am not used to people being so direct. I am also not used to making small talk with strangers and telling them my life story but for some reason this woman was making me want to change the habits of a life time. I looked into her eyes and decided that for the next 2 and half hours I would break the habit and let someone in, I liked this time scale. Once we were off this plane I wouldn't have to see her again.

'Well Emily, I am on my way to my wedding' her eyes widened 'where is the ring? That's usually everyone's first question' I reached under my jumper and pulled out the necklace 'I am not your usual woman and a ring on my finger is one step to far but round my neck I can deal with' I paused to let her speak

'Interesting' she nodded slowly

I am used to many responses when people see my ring on a necklace but that was a new one. Usually people are in one of two catagories 1. You go girl and 2. Oh Naomi, time to grow up. But this response left me wondering.

'Interesting how?' I looked at her confused

'Just, you leave your vows till last minute on the plane ride down and hide your ring inside your jumper' I could see her thinking hard 'seems to me this love you have found might not be rocking your world' once again her honesty surprised me.

I opened my mouth to speak but stopped myself. I did love Marcus, he was successful, charming and everyone got on with him. It doesn't matter that I don't go to bed thinking of him or tingle every time he touches me...does it?

At that moment the pilot came over the speaker 'We have just been told that due to ash cloud movement we are going to have to land just inside France, the ash cloud is not forecast to lift for at least 3 days but airline staff within the terminal building can help with re-booking flights when the ash has cleared. If you wish to carry on to our intended destination of Malaga, Spain today or tomorrow then please see rental car companies also within the terminal building. We apologise for the inconvenience to your travel arrangements'

As the captain signed off passengers everywhere began swearing and grumbling about how this affected their plans. I, on the other hand, was pretty sure I was having a panic attack. Gripping the seat arm rests firmly I began to take deep breaths. I was struggling to get calm when I felt Emily softly take my hand and whisper in my ear 'Don't panic I am sure you have enough pants to last you, me I only have enough for the one day I was planning on staying. I am pretty sure skinny jeans are going to be hell going commando' she chuckled softly in my ear and the sound, coupled with the distraction of Emily wearing no pants, calmed my panic attack so I could now think clearly. Problem was thinking clearly made me aware of Emily's hold on my hand and the fuzzy feeling this was creating. I pulled my hand away but gave her a small smile of thanks to cover my underlying confusion.

Once I had gathered myself I responded 'Oh I have enough underwear alright, problem is my wedding is in three day's and if I am not there my soon to be in-laws may see to it that I will only need one pair to last me the rest of time' I paused some what dramatically 'the ones I will be wearing in my coffin' the sound of Emily laughing momentarily cheered me, I decided that making this curious stranger laugh was my new favourite thing


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, thanks for the comments and views :) here is the next chapter:**

As we stood up to disembark the plane I looked over in Emilys direction and noted that she wasn't looking a normal colour, I leant towards her 'You alright? You look a bit off colour?'

'Off colour? Jeeze Naomi its called having classically pale skin' she shot me a show stealing grin

I felt my self blushing 'No you had beautiful pale skin when you first got on but now it is a bit greeny looking, maybe you got pla' I stopped mid sentence as Emily raised an eyebrow and squeezed my cheek

'Ah aren't you a charmer' it was then that I realised that I had called her skin beautiful, my already blushing face burned even more 'Well I think you should see how red your face is before worrying about other peoples colour Naoms' I didn't care that she had noticed I was blushing it was the nickname that had me in a tail spin, as a rule nick names were a no go I had allowed two people to call me anything but Naomi and that was only because Cook and Effy had refused to listen when I told them to stop. But Naoms had just become my favourite name as long as it was passing Emilys lips.

These thoughts had occurred whilst entering the airport terminal and as I turned to belatedly respond to Emily I felt a tug on my jumper as Emily fell to the floor. The loud thump as she hit her head on the railing made my stomach drop.

'Emily!' I dropped to the floor and pulled my jumper off to stem the blood coming from her head, looking round I noticed people looking at us but none were stopping- SHIT! They are all going to get the limited number of rental cars, brilliant.

I sighed deeply 'Naomi?' Emilys voice pulled my eyes back to her face 'I think missing breakfast was a bad idea' she smiled softly at me and began to get up

'Emily!' I pushed her back to the floor 'you just passed out and have blood coming from your head that is now running down your face' she looked shocked and ran her finger slowly down her face and seductively licked the blood off her finger

'Oh, so I do' she hopped up off the floor, oblivious to the jelly state she had left me in. She looked down at me, slowly leant forwards and kissed me softly on the mouth 'My hero' she put her hand in mine and pulled me off the floor

'Why are you so un fased that you just passed out and cut your head open?' I was totally confused by her attitude

'I'm not dead' she shrugged 'If I start going cross eyed I will go to a doctors, alright?' she patted me on the back and smiled

I have known this girl around an hour and a half, why do I care what happens to her? I rubbed my head and tried to think of anything but Emily.

Not thinking of someone is really quite challenging whilst they are dragging you through the airport terminal towards the car hire shop. She was elbowing people left, right and centre to get to her goal.

Once we reached the car hire desk I took over in full control freak mode, to cut a long story short it got me nowhere. There were no cars left, I was officially stranded. I walked towards Emily who was stood to the side 'No luck, there are no cars' I was concentrating hard on not going into panic mode when Emily put her hand on my shoulder

'I will go over and get a car for you, all I ask for is a lift to Malaga, deal?' Emily appeared to have not listened to me

'Emily, I just said there are no cars left' I shook my head 'so you wont get one' she didn't seem to be getting it as she simply raised an eyebrow

'Watch and learn' she turned on her heel and headed towards the desk

From afar I could only watch as Emily leant over the desk and began to, what can only be described as, dazzle the woman behind the desk. She turned those expression filled eyes into puppy dog eyes whilst shamelessly flirting twisting her hair around her finger and batting her eyelids.

I walked closer to the desk to hear what she was saying to make the woman behind the desk giggle and blush 'If only I could rent a car from here, it really would be great to have a reason to come back' she raised her eyebrow slowly and looked at the woman through bedroom eyes 'Why would you want to come back here?' the woman took the bait 'Well on the way back I have nothing to get home for, and there is a certain rental car assistant that I would just love to get to know more' at this point I thought the woman behind the counter was going to lean across and kiss her face off but before she could Emily sighed dramatically and pulled back turning to leave.

As she walked towards me she began counting down from three, silently mouthing the words at me. She got to 1 when 'WAIT! I will see what I can do, we usually have a car on reserve for potentially high powered clients but for you I can make an exception' the woman began tapping away at her computer whilst Emily pulled the face of a cat who just got the cream.


	3. Chapter 3

**Heyy, thanks for all the awesome reviews. Sorry for the delay, been a busy few days! Hope you enjoy!**

Externally I was calmly driving the hire car towards the edge of the city, internally my brain was whirring. So many questions and no answers Is Emily gay? What was with the passing out? Why can't she drive? Who even is she?

'Just ask them already' Emily's tired sounding voice broke my whirring thoughts up 'the questions you have been asking yourself since we got in the car, just ask them already. Your thinking is making me tired'

How did she do that? This woman is freaking me out, it is like she is in my head 'I'm not in your head I am just good at reading people, I used to be very quiet because my sister did all the talking for me. When you aren't seen by other people it is easy to see people's true colours' she shrugged her shoulders 'we are in this car for potentially days so we might as well pass the time getting to know each other'

I nodded slowly it made sense to me, but I was fine letting her know things about me on our little time scale but now exchanging stories for days was not what I signed up for. I decided to bite the bullet 'OK, first question: are you gay?'

She smiled slowly 'as a window' she laughed gently to herself, but I was still confused 'Sorry, in a more simple answer yes I am. Now don't tell me you are going to be a crazy homophobe who is going to chuck me out?' she grinned at me but I was too busy processing the information to respond 'Naomi, this isn't going to be a problem right? Because don't forget that it was my being gay that got us this car' I looked across at her and shook my head

'No, of course it's fine' I looked back to the road and gripped the steering wheel hard, of course it was fine for Emily to be gay. It's fine that she has made that choice in her life. If I think its is so fine why didn't I just say that instead of making her feel awkward? I began to open my mouth to reassure her when Emily leant forward and turned on the radio and whacked up the volume making it impossible to continue conversation further.

After about half an hour of silent awkward car driving Emily leant forward and turned off the radio. I took a deep breath and prepared to utter my apologies, wanting to apologise weirded me out as normally something like this wouldn't bother me at all. This detour of a trip better be over soon so I can go back to knowing exactly how I feel about things.

But before I could even formulate an apology Emily cut in ' I have to make a phone call to explain that I won't be in Malaga for my appointment tomorrow and sort things out' she looked over at me, that explained the turning off of the radio then.

'Oh, ok' I glanced across at her 'about before I' she held up her hand to stop me

'Honestly Naomi you don't have to say anything, it's not the first time someone has had a problem with my sexuality' she shrugged 'I didn't think you would, but I guess you can't judge a person after half an hour of flying with them' she turned back to her phone

'I dont!' I almost shouted 'I mean I don't have a problem with it, I was just surprised' I sent a smile in her direction

'Well just so you know my first thought when I saw you wasn't I want to fuck that girl' I found my self feeling a bit upset by this, but quickly shook myself back to earth 'in reality my first thought was, thank god I am not sat by an obese man with body odour problems' with that the show stopping smile returned to her face and I felt myself smiling too 'but I really do need to make this call'

I turned back to the road happy that my travel companion seemed to have accepted my apology. I tried not to ear wig on Emily's conversation but really in a tiny car I couldn't help it

'Hi, It is Emily Fitch here' Fitch eh, well at least I now know her last name 'I was just calling because I have been referred to a consult in Malaga but my plane has been grounded in France and I am currently making my way there by car' she paused biting her nail 'Yeah, about two days I should think' she nodded at the person on the other end, that made me smile because clearly they can't see her. At that point she looked over at me, with my goofy grin I probably looked like a looney tune so I quickly rearranged my features 'Ok thanks, if you could call me back and confirm what time he can see me that would be great, Thanks' she put the phone down and looked over at me

'Seems I am not the only one with nosey habits' she raised her eyebrow and smirked

'I didn't, I mean I couldn't help but' she shook her head

'I know, cars are not known for their privacy values are they' she smiled fully at me now ' so Naomi, would you rather be covered in red ants for two days or have to drink a glass of horse sperm?' the look on my face must have amused her as she burst out laughing 'Don't worry, im not a psycho it's just a game my family used to play when we had to go on long drives. So you have to pick one' she smiled encouragingly at me

'Well...I am going to have to drink horse sperm I think, ants creep me out' she burst out laughing again 'what? You would have chosen the ants then?' I looked over at her

'Well as you learnt earlier I am not really a sperm kinda girl am I?' she smiled wickedly at me 'Your turn'

As we continued with the drive the questions became more and more ridiculous, I decided that Emily was a good choice of driving companion because she made me laugh more than I had laughed in months. I guess that it isn't a good sign when spending time with a stranger makes you realise that the man you are going to marry hasn't made you laugh in forever...


End file.
